The Renewable Resources Coalition's
Weekly News Updates

Quote of the Week
“The Bristol Bay watershed is an extraordinary resource. It's hard for me to believe that even at this point there aren't special protections for the fish in Bristol Bay. (Last year) I had so many fish in my net, my boat almost sank. That speaks to the health of the salmon run."
-Lindsey Bloom, Bristol Bay Commercial Fisherman

Tips of the Week!
HB 134 Hearing Continues Tomorrow (Friday)

We've been notified that HB134 will be coming up again tomorrow - meeting starting at 830 AM. It will be the second bill up, and we're estimating that the first bill will be heard for about 1/2 hour. Of course, that's just an estimate. Folks need to go to their local LIO to testify. If your town doesn't have an LIO, you can call 1-888-295-4546. I've been assured that we have the correct call-in number this time.

MINING NEWS: Legislature attacks Pebble on two fronts
Bills in Alaska House and Senate aim to protect fish and wildlife but could be disastrous for Bristol Bay area development
Sarah Hurst
For Mining News
Week of February 25, 2007

Seven Alaska legislators are endorsing two new bills on the protection of salmon and wildlife that would effectively block the development of the proposed Pebble mine. Rep. Bryce Edgmon, D-Dillingham, who ousted incumbent Carl Moses on a coin flip last year, has introduced House Bill 134, and Senate Majority Leader Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, has introduced Senate Bill 67. The co-sponsors of Edgmon’s bill are Jay Ramras, Nancy Dahlstrom, Les Gara and Beth Kerttula; the co-sponsor of Stevens’ bill is Johnny Ellis.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.petroleumnews.com/pnads/659228150.shtml

Former governor's wife lobbies for game refuge
by Jason Moore
KTUU
February 23, 2007

Anchorage, Alaska - Northern Dynasty Mines has yet to apply for permits or present a development plan for its pebble mine, but already the proposed mine is generating concerns and opposition.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=6135676

Blocking economic development is not an honor
Anchorage Daily News
February 22, 2007

Alaska needs a new wildlife refuge like it needs a hole in the head. It already has 58 million acres of designated wilderness and another 90 million acres of parks, wildlife refuges, preserves and other conservation units.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.adn.com/opinion/voice/story/8661397p-8553139c.html

Ramras takes on Pebble
Fairbanks News Miner
February 22, 2007

Rep. Jay Ramras, a Republican from Fairbanks, is co-sponsoring a bill that would raise hurdles for developers of the giant Pebble deposit in Southwest Alaska.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://newsminer.com/2007/02/22/5419/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 28, 2007

Local Alaskans Tell House Fisheries Committee: Bristol Bay Salmon Come First Letters and Public Testimony Favor HB 134, "Alaska Wild Salmon Protection Act"

CONTACTS:

Norm Van Vactor, Peter Pan Seafoods, (206) 390-2659 cell

Brian Kraft, Alaska Sportsman's Lodge Owner; Trout Unlimited,

(907) 227-8719 cell

Bobby Andrew, Nunamta Aulukestai, (907) 227-4881 cell

JUNEAU, AK-Commercial and sport fishermen and Alaska Natives were among those testifying this morning before the House Fisheries Committee in support of a bipartisan bill to protect Bristol Bay salmon habitat. Dozens more letters of support have poured into the Committee, showing a landslide of support for HB 134, "The Alaska Wild Salmon Protection Act." Letters and testimony together run 20 to 1 in support of the bill, introduced by Representative Edgmon (D-Dillingham). Testimony was only taken from those in the room, and a second hearing was set for Friday to accommodate the more than 60 people from Bristol Bay and around Alaska who were unable to testify by phone.

"The late Governor Jay Hammond championed protections for Bristol Bay wild salmon when he served in the Alaska State Senate 35 years ago," said Brian Kraft, Owner and General Manager of Alaska Sportsman's Lodge and Southwest Alaska Project Director for Trout Unlimited. "This bill honors his vision by adding safeguards to address new threats to salmon."

In addition to Trout Unlimited, Alaska Independent Fisherman's Marketing Association, City of New Stuyahok, Federation of Flyfishers, the Bristol Bay-based Nunamta Aulukestai, and others have already endorsed HB 134.

Political heavyweights in Alaska, including United Fishermen of Alaska, Senator Ted Stevens, Alaska Magazine and the Bristol Bay Area Native Association, have all voiced opposition to "Pebble", a massive open-pit gold-copper-molybdenum mine in the heart of the Bristol Bay watershed.

"Hard-working, fair-minded Alaskans today spoke the truth about the risks to our wild salmon," said Norm Van Vactor, Bristol Bay Manager for Peter Pan Seafoods. "As more Alaskans take a hard look at the Pebble Mine and ask tough questions, they realize that it's wrong for Bristol Bay and for all of us who depend on wild salmon."

"The Alaska Wild Salmon Protection Act" would protect one of Alaska's greatest salmon fisheries by prohibiting the withdrawal, obstruction, pumping, and pollution of surface and subsurface water in any Bristol Bay drainages that support wild salmon. It is co-sponsored by Representatives Ramras (R-Fairbanks), Dahlstrom (R-Eagle River), Gara (D-Anchorage), and Kerttula (D-Juneau).

"Wait and see' won't protect Bristol Bay salmon," said Bobby Andrew, Nunamta Aulukestai. "As Alaskans who testified today made clear, the bay's renewable resources are too important to risk. Wild salmon and open-pit mines don't mix."

In response to requests from Bristol Bay residents, Representative Edgmon and his fellow sponsors added clarifying language to the bill specifically exempting existing uses, drinking water and domestic uses, ordinary existing and future municipal uses, traditional, cultural, and residential uses, unincorporated communities, transportation projects, energy projects, and seafood processing.

"This bill is about ensuring that we continue to have healthy habitat for Bristol Bay Salmon. It is a bill that does not prohibit any industry or activity other than ones that would, by their very nature, need to destroy rivers with salmon and resident fish populations in order to operate," said Kraft.

Although HB 134 does not explicitly prohibit mining or any other development, it raises the bar for Northern Dynasty's Pebble mine. The Canadian mining company plans to drain Upper Talarik Creek and the Upper and Lower Koktuli River to support its operations, according to water rights applications it submitted to the Alaska Department of Natural Resources last summer.

Highlights from testimony submitted today to the House Fisheries Committee, include the following:

"We need higher standards to protect the habitat of the greatest Sockey run in the world. The stakes are too high. Having a massive tailings pond straddling the ridge that divides the watersheds of the Kvichak and Nushagak river systems scares the hell out of me. If there is any issue with contaminated water in Bristol Bay, it will be detrimental to the marking of all Alaskan salmon," said Nick Lee, Bristol Bay fisherman, speaking for the Bristol Bay Driftnetters Association. (206) 854-9630.

"I am writing to express my total support for HB 134.The proposed Pebble Mine project poses an unacceptable risk to a resource that it so vital to the livelihood of everyone in the Bristol Bay region," said Jon Painter of Painter Creek Lodge in a letter to Rep. Seaton dated February 19, 2007. (907) 248-1303.

"My family has lived off land for many years. We subsistence and commercial fish, work and use the land frequently. Harvey Samuelson Sr. was adamant in telling us to protected our culture, our land and our fisheries. use it wisely and protect for future generations. This land is meant for many years. Every drop of water affects what we eat, drink, bather, and will affect us for many years. We eat the salmon, caribou, moose, berries, freshwater fish. There are many lodges, they contribute to the local economy with air transport and jobs if people want them," said Rae Bell Whitcomb, Alaskan Native born and raised in Dillingham, (907) 952-1124.

"We want to protect our renwable resource, do same as our elders did, same as we did before statehood. Fisheries are the first thing we depend on. A lot of folks are dependant on fisheries, not only salmon, but freshwater fish. We support HB 134," said Peter Christopher of New Stuyahok.

We all use the many products of mines
PAULA EASLEY
Anchorage Daily News
February 3, 2007

With the hullabaloo over mining these days, we ought to go back to basics for a moment. We all need "things" to live, and these things are made out of "stuff" we get from the earth. We also grow and use trees, food and animals. We harvest seafood from our rivers and oceans. We're humans, and that's what we do.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.adn.com/opinion/comment/easley/story/8612428p-8504081c.html

Let Hammond's vision live with fish refuge
Compass: Points of view from the community
By TIM TROLL

Anchorage Daily News

January 29, 2007

In the debate surrounding the "d2" lands bill that became the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) then-Gov. Jay Hammond was, in his words, "offending" both conservationists and developers "equally."

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.adn.com/opinion/compass/story/8599653p-8492505c.html

Letters to the Editor

SEACC was right in its legal actions
Eric Holle
Juneau Empire
March 1, 2007

http://juneauempire.com/stories/030107/let_20070301006.shtml

Coeur Alaska's actions and ad campaign regarding its Kensington Mine are arrogant, misleading and irresponsible. They have known all along that dumping toxic mine tailings into Lower Slate Lake above Berners Bay is illegal under the federal Clean Water Act and would be challenged in court. Yet it arrogantly proceeded.

Coeur Alaska irresponsibly led investors and employees to risk their finances and futures with a project that is on shaky legal ground. Now Coeur's ads mislead the public into blaming conservationists for placing mining jobs at risk when it is Coeur itself that is doing so. Had the company proceeded with its dry-tailings plan, no one would be challenging its permits today.

Thousands of Americans fought long and hard for our Clean Water Act. It is America's most important protection against industries that would pollute our waters, placing profits above public health and well being, and above environmental protection. If the courts allow Coeur to turn a pristine Alaska lake into a mine dump, it will set a dangerous legal precedent, placing other lakes, rivers and U.S. waters at risk.

The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council and other conservation groups should be commended for challenging Coeur in court, defending Alaska's waters and the fish, wildlife and people who depend on them.

Naming refuge for Hammond would be appropriate tribute
Arthur Mannix
Anchorage Daily News
February 27, 2007

http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8673470p-8567830c.html

At the memorial service for former Gov. Jay Hammond in Anchorage's Center for the Performing Arts, Sen. Ted Stevens spoke passionately about Hammond's contributions to Alaska. He finished his address with the statement that he was going to introduce in the U.S. Senate legislation to change the name of Lake Clark National Park to Jay Hammond National Park.

With a timely new state legislative proposal (Senate Bill 67) for the creation of the Jay Hammond State Game Refuge, it seems fitting that Sen. Stevens, who co-authored the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, would embrace the creation of this refuge designed specifically to protect fish habitat.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act clarifies the definition of "essential fish habitat" as habitat crucial to the spawning, breeding and continued production of specific stocks of fish. A name change for the existing federal lands of Lake Clark National Park would take a veritable act of Congress.

In light of the situation, it seems "poetically correct" to consider state Sen. Gary Stevens' bill to classify and designate the adjacent state lands for the purposes of sustainability that Hammond so espoused. Two Republican senators, one federal and one state, each introduced legislation protecting fish habitat. Each have proposed naming protected lands after late Gov. Hammond. Let's put both proposals into action and support the Jay Hammond State Game Refuge.

Saving Iliamna Lake from mining also delivers villages from new jobs
George Hornberger, Northern Dynasty employee
Anchorage Daily News
February 27, 2007

http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8673470p-8567830c.html

Having lived in the Iliamna area for quite some time, I believe I have a good idea of what is good for the area and what is not. I look at the people working for Northern Dynasty. Some come from as far as Togiak, Twin Hills, New Stuyahok and Koliganek. There are many from the Iliamna Lake area. These people are not on welfare or unemployment. They also have to maintain a clean lifestyle (drug and alcohol testing). We have villages that are slowly dying because of a lack of jobs. We have our project now. It may not be the best thing in the world, but we and Northern Dynasty are trying to make it one of the best.

To all the Bob Gillams, Renewable Resources Coalition people, legislators, senators, etc., if you shut down the Pebble mine, what is your plan for the Iliamna Lake area? Please bring your checkbook when you tell us you have done us the favor of chasing away the good jobs we have had here. We are tired of being entitlement villages. No one out here wants to see a strip mine that will ruin the country. We do want to give Northern Dynasty the chance to finish its exploration and get into permitting. Only then can anyone truly know what this mine may or may not look like.

Forget the Japanese market for fish if Northern Dynasty gets its mine
Taro Satake
Anchorage Daily News
February 26, 2007

http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8671426p-8565334c.html

As an avid Alaska fly-fisherman for more than 20 years, I have fished the smaller Lake Clark streams, the Newhalen and the Naknek rivers for the past decade. I am obsessed with fishing trophy trout rivers where the only other warm-blooded animals are my best buddies and bears. The excitement that each cast holds the potential for a monster 30-inch rainbow is a truly Alaska experience. I am terrified of Northern Dynasty's plans to create one of the world's largest open-pit mines in the heart of Alaska's world-class fishery.

Consider the detrimental effect that such a massive mine would have on the current wild Alaska aura. Regional fishing, hunting and the Bristol Bay salmon industry will suffer from the existence of Northern Dynasty's Pebble. The huge Japanese demand for Bristol Bay salmon and caviar will without question decrease. Japanese consumers are highly sensitive to any potential pollutants or pathogens in food. The Japanese reaction to the small mad cow disease outbreak and the subsequent ban on all imported American beef is indicative of a potentially similar reaction toward Alaska salmon. Northern Dynasty cannot guarantee that its massive dams will hold during a moderately large earthquake. What can the Canadian mining conglomerate offer Alaska when the Bristol Bay region suffers both in the short term and long after Northern Dynasty leaves?

Putting the habitat authority with Fish and Game makes good sense
Don Bremner
Anchorage Daily News
February 24, 2007

http://www.adn.com/opinion/letters/story/8667113p-8559282c.html

Transferring habitat authority and management back to the Department of Fish and Game is the right thing to do. The department cannot abdicate its rights, roles and responsibility to manage fish and game in Alaska;

• The department knows that Alaska's salmon fishery is healthy and sustainable, largely because of abundant pristine habitat properly managed with sound, precautionary, conservation practices.

• Fish and Game has recognized the need for a comprehensive policy of regulation and management.

• Fish and Game has worked to develop plans that achieve maximum salmon abundance. The department considers factors that include environmental change, habitat loss or degradation, data uncertainty, inconsistent funding for research and management, harvest patterns, new or expanding fisheries.

• The department understands that to effectively assure sustained yield and habitat protection for wild salmon stocks, fishery management plans and programs require consistent and controlled guiding principles and criteria.

• The department has set goals of ensuring conservation of salmon, and salmon's marine and aquatic habitats, protection of customary and traditional subsistence uses, and other uses, and the sustained economic health of Alaska fishing communities.

The department has state and federal legal contracts that say it will manage fish, game and habitat to achieve sustainable fisheries.

Passing House Bill 41 is the right thing to do and we request our legislators and governor move forward in approving HB 41.

---- Don Bremner, natural resource coordinator

Southeast Alaska Inter-Tribal

Fish and Wildlife Commission

Juneau

Mine opponents’ disaster scenarios are out of whack
Anchorage Daily News
February 21, 2007

http://www.adn.com/opinion/voice/story/8579316p-8472353c.html

You know that scary television commercial warning that the Pebble mine will have a 700-foot-high dam holding back a huge reservoir of acid-filled water? Well, industry experts say that’s a bunch of hooey.

The narrator on the scary ad implies that the “dam” could break in an earthquake and send a massive wall of toxic water down into Bristol Bay, killing the salmon and eliminating thousands of fishing jobs.

Opponents label the project a gold mine, and the prospect does contain a lot of gold. But the operators consider it primarily a copper mine. About 60 percent of the mineral content is copper, 30 percent is gold and 10 percent is molybdenum. The owners say they are hoping to finalize the plan next year and spend the next three years in the permitting process with state and federal agencies.

The dam won’t be a huge concrete structure, as most people envision it. It would actually be a 700 foot tall rock embankment with a tailings pond behind it, a pond that could be stocked with rainbow trout. (Many of them are.) It won’t tower over the scenery, but would sit relatively low in a valley.

The pond will have a deep rock bottom and a top layer of 50 to 75 feet of plain old water; no acid, no other nasty chemicals, just plain old H2O. The bottom would consist of non-toxic crushed rock left over from the mining operation and deep below that would be a layer of similar rock, a small part of which is called “pyritic” or capable of generating acid if it’s exposed to the air. Keeping the pyritic rock buried under a tailings pond prevents it from becoming troublesome for the environment.

A big embankment (pile of rocks) built to modern requirements, as this one would be, is unlikely to burst even in a major earthquake. Like most rock piles, it could only settle and the amount of settlement is entirely predictable. A shaker of that size would cause a lot more serious problems for the area than a pond leaking plain old water into the environment.

If a pond that size were suddenly unleashed, what would be the effect? Well, actually not much, except for any people standing directly below it and perhaps any trout in the pond. Presumably a sudden release of water could be a problem, but a pond of that size would scarcely be the makings of a disaster.

So are Pebble mine opponents grossly exaggerating the environmental threat from the tailings pond? They certainly are.

Tse Keh Nay
Takla First Nation ~ Tsay Keh Dene ~ Kwadacha First Nation
P.O. Box 2310, Prince George, B.C., V2N 2J8
Phone: 250-564-9321 Fax: 250-564-9521

OPEN LETTER

February 22, 2007

Dear Premier Campbell,

The Tse Keh Nay welcomed your Speech from the Throne on February 13. It was heartening to hear that your government “stands firmly for the recognition and respect of Aboriginal rights, title, and self-determination within the Canadian Constitution.” And that your government is equally up to the challenge of providing “environmental leadership” as it pertains to dealing with local environmental threats and on the broader issue of combating global warming. And yet, we are very concerned with the apparent contradiction between these important commitments and a recent comment attributed to you in the media regarding the proposed Kemess North mine proposal. It said you were “looking into delays in the process” around that mine’s environmental assessment review.

Northgate Minerals Corporation’s Kemess North mine is currently undergoing a joint federal and provincial panel review. One of the crucial environmental considerations the panel is considering is whether the company’s proposal to use Amazay Lake as a waste dump can be done in an environmentally appropriate manner. We state that it cannot ever be done nor should ever be done because the proposal includes the use of a fish-bearing lake for a mine waste dump. That is the unequivocal position of our communities. And we state that in the strongest terms possible. Therefore, the problem with this particular application is not the length of its environmental review – or so called delays – but rather that this asinine storage proposal should not have advanced this far in the review process in the first place.

Amazay Lake lies in the heart of our territory and is a well-spring for our culture. We have un-extinguished Aboriginal rights and title there, including important spiritual, hunting, fishing, medicine-gathering, burial sites and cultural sites. Since the B.C. treaty process began, each one of our First Nations has made significant investments in time and money to negotiate a fair treaty, one that would reconcile our respective rights and titles with the assertion of the Crown’s sovereignty. But that hasn’t happened yet for reasons best left to another time to discuss.

To date, we have had limited participation in the Kemess North public review hearings, including the process leading up to them. Where we have participated it has been “under protest”. This is because the entire review process is flawed. It does not work for us. It needs to be fixed. Since 2002, the province’s environmental assessment legislation has gone backwards. Before then, there was a requirement to have First Nations as partners on a project committee to design individual reviews. In our case, we did not contribute to the design of the Kemess North review nor did we have a meaningful role in how it was eventually carried out. As it is now, the province must deal with two primary issues: 1) reconcile our aboriginal title, rights, and interests with its own industrial development aims, and 2) revisit with us the Kemess North environmental assessment process, given that it purports to evaluate and screen out unacceptable industrial impacts on the environment, which in effect are our homelands.

For the past nine months we have tried to engage the Minister of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources to negotiate a mining protocol with us. Our proposal is to work with your government and other stakeholders on a land-use plan that designates where and how mining can take place in our territory. We are more than willing to work with government and industry to develop mines in an environmentally sustainable manner and in appropriate areas. Therefore, we remind you of your commitment to Tsay Keh Dene Grand Chief Gordon Pierre to meet with us in the coming weeks to discuss our concerns. We can discuss this proposal further at that meeting. In the meantime, we ask that your government re-consider its support for the unconventional and socially and environmentally unacceptable mine waste storage proposal that it currently contained in the Kemess North copper-gold mine application. Doing so, we think, would be consistent with your government’s pledge to be a leader on environmental matters.

We look forward to your correspondence. Thank you.

In the Spirit of the New Relationship,

Chief John Allen French

Takla First Nation

On Behalf of the Tse Keh Nay

Cc: First Nations Leadership Council

Provincial Cabinet

Tsilhqot’in National Government

Alaska to offer oil leases in salmon-rich bay
State follows Bush administration, which is opening areas farther out
Reuters
February 27, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - When Alaska officials on Wednesday sell the state's rights to explore for oil and gas on its southwestern peninsula, they may be offering a toehold on new a energy frontier.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17363491/

Galahad Gold plc
MineWeb
February 27, 2007

Galahad announces that it has conditionally agreed to sell its remaining holding of 9,565,195 common shares in Northern Dynasty Minerals Ltd. (NDM) to BMO Capital Markets (BMO) for an aggregate cash consideration of C$109m (£47.9m) (the Sale). The consideration for the Sale will be payable on completion, which is expected to be on or around 21 March 2007. The sale price is equivalent to C$11.40 per NDM share and represents a discount of 5% to the closing price of an NDM share on 23 February 2007.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.mineweb.net/co_releases/640618.htm

Leasing Alaska's new energy frontier?
By Yereth Rosen
Reuter

February 26, 2007

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - When Alaska officials on Wednesday sell the state's rights to explore for oil and gas on its southwestern peninsula, they may be offering a toehold on a new energy frontier.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.reuters.com/article/bondsNews/idUSN2627276920070227

2007 salmon forecast predicts a bumper crop
By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

February 18, 2007

Southeast Alaska commercial troll fishermen are seeing record prices at the docks for king salmon, and consumers are lining up to buy king fillets in Anchorage for up to $22.95 a pound.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.alaskajournal.com/stories/021807/hom_20070218001.shtml

Controversy Over Santa Rita Mountains Open Pit Mine Proposal
By Shelby Baker
KGUN 9 News
February 24, 2007

The environment versus the economy. An open pit mine proposal in the Santa Ritas has many local residents weighing the negative impacts against a possible economic boost.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://kgun9.com/NewsArticle/tabid/1112/xmid/9974/Default.aspx

Prosecutors to use 'fingerprint' to show origin of stolen gold

· South African court is first to use new technique
· Thefts from country's mines total £75m a year
James Randerson in San Antonio
The Guardian

February 23, 2007

Prosecutors in South Africa hope to use a technique that produces a chemical "gold fingerprint" to trace where a stolen haul of the precious metal originated.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://business.guardian.co.uk/story/0,,2019712,00.html

Labor Shortage Pushes Mining Companies to Recruit and Pay More
By WAYNE ARNOLD and HEATHER TIMMONS
New York Times
Published: February 27, 2007

Every time Sue Gogilis starts her shift driving the company truck she gives her steering wheel a good rub with a few disinfectant wipes.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/27/business/27miner.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

China mines Tibet's rich resources
The railway link to Tibet now appears to have been part of a broader plan to exploit vast deposits of metals in the disputed region, explains Fortune's Abrahm Lustgarten.
By Abrahm Lustgarten
Fortune reporter
February 21 2007

(Fortune) -- When China opened its controversial new railway to Tibet last July, international critics howled at the prospect that the region's culture and environment would be ravaged in search of resources. China repeated a solemn refrain, its officials insisting that the $4 billion project was aimed not at plundering the disputed territory but at bringing prosperity and economic development to Tibetan society.

To view article in its entirety, please click on

http://money.cnn.com/2007/02/20/magazines/fortune/lustgarten_china.fortune/index.htm?section=money_email_alerts